Record of Decision

Energy Sector Sustainability Table Meeting

July 13, 2007
Toronto, Ontario

Co-Chairs:

Larry Murray
Gerard Protti

Members:

Pierre Alvarez
Dane Baily
Jan Carr
Hans Konow
Suzanne Leblanc
Dave MacInnis
Nashina Shariff
Michael Cleland
Cassie Doyle
Murray Elston
Joe Gargiso
Michael Horgan
Ken Ogilvie
André Plourde
Marlo Raynolds
Allison Scott

Observers:

Christine Hogan

Presenters:

Cécile Cléroux
Chantal Maheu

Secretariat:

Anatole Papadopoulos
Marco Presutti
Nancy Roberts

Absent:

Strater Crowfoot
Robert Hornung
Richard Nerysoo
Vicky Sharpe
Peter Watson

ESST Administration

• The Record of Decisions for the November 2, 2006 ESST meeting was approved without changes.
• Larry Murray will be stepping down from the role of Co-chair of the ESST when he retires in August 2007. His Co-chair, Gerry Protti, and all ESST members expressed appreciation to Mr. Murray for his work on the ESST. The Government of Canada will select a new individual to serve as co-chair before the next meeting.
  
• The Co-chairs welcomed Nashina Shariff, Toxics Watch Canada, as the new CEN representative on the ESST. The Co-chairs thanked John Bennett, the former CEN representative, for his participation at the ESST.
  
• The Co-chairs expressed appreciation for the work undertaken by Sue Kirby and Christine Hogan in their roles as Co-chair representatives.
  
• Okenge Yuma Morisho, Stacey Schorr and Nancy Roberts were thanked for their support of the ESST as staff of the SST Secretariat.
  
• For future ESST meetings, detailed documents for member discussion will be circulated to ESST members a minimum of two weeks before the meeting. Any documents arriving after that time will require the approval of the Cochairs to be tabled at the meeting.

Update on SSTs

• Members were informed of the Government's desire for the ESST to play a vital role in the environmental agenda.
  
• An update on the activities of the Forest SST and the Mining SST were given.

Clean Air Industrial Regulatory Agenda

• Cécile Cléroux (ADM, Environmental Stewardship Branch, Environment Canada) provided a high-level overview of the Government of Canada's Clean Air Industrial Regulatory Agenda for table members.
  
• Michael Horgan and Cassie Doyle requested that the ESST play a role in providing both short-term and longer-term advice to help advance the Government's Clean Air Agenda.
  
  o In the short-term term, the ESST will provide advice on specific
  challenging issues related to the development of the Clean Air
  Regulatory Framework as requested by federal government
  representatives.
  
  o In the longer-term, the ESST will provide advice on how to meet the
  target of reducing national GHG emissions by 20% by 2020 within the
  context of Canada as an emerging energy superpower. This should
  include a discussion on energy technology.
  
  
• An ESST conference call will occur in early August 2007 to discuss the path forward for ESST engagement on the Clean Air Agenda. Inadvance of the meeting, Michael Horgan and Cassie Doyle will provide ESST members with a proposal outlining the specific request for ESST engagement on the issue.

Energy Efficiency Working Group

Marlo Raynolds and Suzanne Leblanc, EEWG Co-chairs, outlined the activities and deliverables of the EEWG in 2007.

• An introductory paragraph will be included in all EEWG papers, containing information on EEWG membership, mandate, and relationship to ESST. It will also be indicated that the issue papers are intended to served as working documents to be used as input to the EEWG Final Report.
  
• ESST members will be given additional time to review the EEWG Foundation Paper and issue papers on Personal Drivers, Targets, Corporate Decision Making, and The Long-Term Potential in Urban Design. An email will be sent out on July 16 asking ESST members to indicate whether they approve the current versions of the documents. Votes not received by August 7 will be interpreted as approval for therelease of the documents.
  
• If the next ESST is scheduled after the next EEWG meeting (September 20, 2007), a preliminary draft of the EEWG Final Report will be made available for review and comment by the ESST. Should the timing of both meetings not allow this, conference calls will be set up for ESST members to review and provide input on specific topics or issues of contention arising in the development of the EEWG Final Report.
  
• It was indicated that EEWG advice was helpful in preparation for the fall 2007
  Council of Energy Ministers meeting.
  
• The Co-chairs and members of the ESST thanked the co-chairs, members, and advisors of the EEWG for their work to date.

Environmental Scan

As moderator of the Expert Review Workshop on the Environmental Scan, held on November 27, 2006, André Plourde highlighted the outcomes and key messages from the workshop. Participants in the Workshop were energy sector experts from industry, NGOs, academia, and federal and provincial governments.

• Michael Horgan provided a progress update on the Environmental Scan, outlining the revisions made in response to the recommendations from the Expert Review Workshop.
  
• The Scan is in its final stages of development. A one-month review period will be provided to allow ESST members to send final comments on the document to Marco Presutti (marco.presutti@ec.gc.ca). A final draft incorporating member comments will be completed in September 2007.
  
• The ESST agreed that a discussion on the process and timing for the release of the document will occur at the Fall ESST meeting. It was agreed that a discussion on science/research gaps related to environmental information emerging from the Scan will occur at a future ESST meeting.

Economic Scan

Chantal Maheu, Acting ADM Energy Policy, NRCan, presented the structure and main messages of the Economic Scan prepared by NRCan for the ESST.

• The Economic Scan is in its early stages of development. ESST members will be provided with a one-month review period to send initial comments on the Economic Scan to Chantal Maheu (chantal.maheu@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca).
• The Economic Scan will follow a similar development path as the Environmental Scan. After the Economic Scan is revised to reflect comments from ESST members and other stakeholders, and revisited at a future ESST meeting, the document will be subject to an expertre view workshop.
• The Economic Scan might benefit from the information resulting from an NRCan workshop on economic data for the energy sector that will occur on September 14, 2007. Information on this meeting will be circulated to ESST members.

Upcoming Meetings

• A conference call will be scheduled for the week of July 30 to August 3, 2007 to discuss path forward for ESST engagement on the Clean Air Agenda.
• The next meeting of the ESST is planned for September/October 2007.